Patrick Canchari climbed a horse earlier this month at Canterbury Park and walked it around the chair after a short time. That may not seem like much, but after he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash in March 2020, a time that doctors told his family could keep him in good condition. plants for the rest of his life, it’s a huge step forward in a recovery that continues to defy all predictions.
“He is making some really good progress,” said his sister and legal guardian, Ashley Canchari. “His riding really shows a lot when it comes to his recovery. Just being able to balance on a horse on your own without assistance is a huge step forward.”
For Canchari, who started riding in 2011, and his brother Alex now riding at Prairie Meadows, March 17, 2020 is supposed to be like any other day. Scheduled to do some horses, he was driving to Turf Paradise and was just a block away from the track when his car collided with another car.
The situation is extremely serious. He broke his neck and suffered a 3rd degree diffuse traumatic brain injury, which is considered one of the most severe forms of traumatic brain injury.
The Canchari family, unable to visit Patrick in the hospital because of COVID-19 restrictions, were presented with a poor prognosis. And with Canchari still in a coma two months after the crash, it’s hard not to expect the worst.
“Essentially, his neurocriminal group said he would most likely be vegetative and paralyzed for the rest of his life,” his sister said. “They say most of his progress will come in the first year and then it will be successful.”
He still has a long way to go. Ashley Canchari says her brother is not capable of living on his own. Even when he is walking with a walking stick, someone should be by his side in case he loses his balance. She admits that, cognitively, he is nothing like us before the accident and has problems with his memory. But what is encouraging is that he continues to get better every day, which many experts have deemed unlikely if not impossible. That’s why getting on a horse is such a big deal.
“The fact that he continues to improve is why we hope that the next step will be for him to achieve as much of a degree of independence as possible,” said Ashley Canchari. “We’ve worked with so many specialists and his doctors, world-renowned specialists, and they’re just amazed at the progress he’s made.”
Out of the hospital, Patrick moved in with his sister in October 2020. His friends and family, denying hope that he could get better, searched everywhere for answers.
“We looked at a lot of alternative therapies and treatments, which worked,” she said. “We took supplements and modified his diet, down to his drinking water. We did a lot of research to try to help him recover.”
Canchari believes her brother won’t make progress as friends and family give up hope that he can recover.
“I am adamant that we need to keep an optimistic mindset and believe that anything is possible,” she said. “We need to be optimistic despite what people are saying. If you get caught in a cycle of doom and gloom, everything else suffers. We just try to keep an optimistic mind and really believe that these milestones can be achieved.”
Just because Canchari gets on a horse doesn’t mean he’ll be in a race any time soon. But it gave his family another glimmer of hope.
“We started pretty slowly,” Ashley said. “He hopes to ride again but there is still a lot of work that we are doing. He has done so many things that doctors and experts say will never happen so I am confident that anything is possible.”
She hopes that he will be able to walk on his own within a year and lead a more independent life.
“For him to walk independently, without the support of a cane, walker or anything else, would be a huge development,” she said.
She said her brother has set his sights on getting back on track as a gymnast by 2024. If he can do that, perhaps the next step will be for him to join. races. Can it happen? It means defying the odds, but no one rules that out.
